Althrope outing

Since the summer, I have have visited quite a few National Trust  and English Heritage properties. It all steamed from my birthday. I spent my birthday at Althrope House. I was quite determined that this year would be a good birthday, and after a short discussion with a friend, he had told me how beautiful Althrope really was. I got hooked on the idea of going. Now that my health was much better, I could walk further distances. After speaking to two of my friends, I asked them if they’d like to come with me on my birthday weekend to  Althrope. With no hesitation, they both accepted the offer, and I was straight onto the internet to book tickets.


Friday had arrived, it was now the summer holidays. The excitement filled my soul that I had made it through a whole term at work. My days had been built up to the point of getting back to full time. I had made it this far, so I was extremely excited that I could now enjoy my time doing my own thing. The following day was the day trip to Althrope. I’d always dreamt about going to Princess Diana’s family home and her final resting place. The journey there seemed quite quick but it took about 1 hour and 45 minutes to get there. Once we arrived, I had to find where the disabled parking was, as my friends both have blue badges. I was quite relieved to know that the parking was right by the house. It would have took an awful long time for me to have walked to the house, as normal parking was just outside the gates! Now although I am much better at walking, my pace isn’t quite the same as my peers. I tend to have to adjust the speed I am walking.

My first stop was straight to the loos! As I am taking water tablet, they have annoying habit of making you need to loo all the time! Once I’d payed the loos a visit, we then had a walk around the Princess Diana exhibit. All the amazing photography from Diana’s last photo shoot were on display. My first thought on seeing these photos were the size of her nose! Sorry to any Princess Diana fans out there but it was very noticeable. My one friend came out and said it straight away! I think we agreed amongst ourselves that this was true, however, she was still a beautiful looking lady.

So after a day of walking around the estate and the house, we all decided to head back home.

Following on from our day trip out, this lead me to decide that I enjoyed walking around these grand stately homes. I very much enjoy history and seeing how the rich half lived. So hence, I found myself going to more stately homes. In total I’ve  now visited 10 National Trust properties. The way I see it, is that it’s doing me good and giving me the exercise I need.